Casselberry businesses right to be dubious about flyover

Traffic can get snarled along U.S. Highway 17-92 at Horatio Avenue in Maitland.

Sometimes I have to wait through a couple of red lights to get to where I want to go.

Hey, let's build a flyover. You know, a massive concrete overpass that lets drivers throttle over a busy intersection without hitting the brakes.

What's that? Too disruptive? A flyover would cut off access to businesses? Motorists would speed by too fast to notice what shops are there, much less stop and buy something?

If you're asking those questions, you're right.

A flyover at Horatio makes about as much sense as encouraging texting and driving in a school zone — none.

So why should Casselberry, less than three miles north on U.S. 17-92, have to live with such a solution to its traffic woes?

Each day that goes by makes it more likely that a flyover on U.S. 17-92 over S.R. 436 will begin construction this fall.

The answer is rooted in this state's addiction to speed.

When the Florida Department of Transportation engineers look at a road, they typically care about two things: how many cars the street can move, and how fast.

Sometimes I think the guys at DOT are speed junkies posing as bureaucrats.

Look at the monstrosity over State Road 436 at State Road 50.

There has been an exodus of businesses from the nearby plazas on S.R. 436.

But you don't have to hit your brakes as you're flying over them.

This is what critics of Casselberry's flyover plan fear.

And I don't blame them.

If state transportation officials and the community in general were willing to accept a little more congestion, then perhaps we would see a solution there that looks more like a boulevard than a freeway.

But that's unlikely now.

Contractors are already competing for the job. The contract will likely be awarded by the end of next month.

Even if somebody walked into DOT today with a perfect plan to keep the street moving as well as make it more business and pedestrian friendly, it's unlikely anyone could stop the flyover plans already in motion.

That hasn't stopped Richard Birdoff from trying. His company owns more than 50 acres near the intersection, and he fears the plans will hurt future development there.

He told me he plans to present more data to DOT to support an alternative to the flyover.

DOT officials told me they would listen but weren't sure abandoning the flyover is even possible at this point.

The city of Casselberry is just ready for a resolution.

The state started buying up property for the project years ago, removing businesses from the city's tax rolls.

And the only thing worse for new development than speeding cars is uncertainty about what's going to happen.

Casselberry finally has some momentum to start its city center project and has seen success with its Lake Concord Park, both of which front U.S. 17-92.

Casselberry is trying to grow up. Speeding up traffic won't help.

"If they shrank 17-92 or made it the same size it is in Maitland, Casselberry could bloom," said John Norquist, president of the Congress of the New Urbanism.

Birdoff's boulevard idea, as DOT officials point out, wasn't perfect. The road ended up even wider, potentially a worse scenario for pedestrians.

In Central Florida, where the car is king, our roads are like the foundation of a house.

It either provides a solid structure for the kind of cities and neighborhoods that prosper, or it cracks and sinks. It's too bad an opportunity to improve the foundation in Casselberry may be wasted.